Terrebonne deputies said they responded about 10:46 p.m. to the Belmere Apartments, 100 Belmere Ave., after receiving reports of a stabbing. They found McGehee with several stab wounds to her body, they said.

Gilley and McGehee had been arguing over a male companion, and the defendant invited McGehee to her apartment complex to fight, authorities said. During the confrontation, Gilley pulled a folding knife from her hip and stabbed McGehee multiple times, deputies said.

Deputies performed CPR on the victim until paramedics from the Bayou Cane Fire Department and Acadian Ambulance took McGehee to Terrebonne General Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead, authorities said.

On the night of July 11, 2017, dispatchers received a frantic 911 call from McGehee’s friend, Ashley Pitre. Prosecutors played the recording of the call Wednesday for the jury.

In one of the police photos of the crime scene, a bloody teddy bear can be seen that was used to apply pressure to McGehee’s wound. Blood droplets could also be seen on the sidewalk.

Authorities said the stabbing occurred as Gilley and McGehee and two other women brawled outside the apartment complex.

“If someone has a knife and is stabbing someone else, that’s great bodily harm,” said Assistant District Attorney Chris Erny, who’s prosecuting the case. “Basically she brought a knife to a fist fight.”

Gilley’s New Orleans attorney, Gregory Sauzer, said neither woman knew each other but exchanged messages on Instagram.

A conversation occurred between Gilley and her boyfriend, who used to date McGehee, Sauzer said.

“He told her things weren’t over with Jessica,” Sauzer said.

Gilley then exchanged text messages with McGehee and eventually gave her her phone number, Sauzer said. As the two women argued over the speaker phone, Gilley’s mother, Miranda Swartz, gave McGehee the name of their apartment complex on Belmere Luxury Court, Sauzer said.

McGehee drove to the apartment complex with two companions and confronted Swartz outside, Sauzer said. A fight erupted between the two women, and Gilley grabbed a knife and went outside to help her mother.

After McGehee punched Gilley and knocked her to the ground, the defendant stabbed her because she feared for her life, Sauzer said.

“We’re not saying she’s not the one who killed Jessica McGehee,” Sauzer said. “We’re saying she reasonably believed she was in imminent danger of receiving great bodily harm. This killing was necessary to save her from that danger. She didn’t want to use that knife.”

In an audio recording of Gilley’s interview with Terrebonne sheriff's detective Jason Kibodeaux, the defendant said she stabbed McGehee in self-defense.

“I pulled out my knife,” Gilley says in the recording. “I didn’t see her because she ran up on me, but I guess I stabbed her. She came up and put me down on the ground, that’s when I stabbed her. I was just defending myself. There was blood on the knife, and I knew it wasn’t my blood.”

After being stabbed multiple times, McGehee climbed off of Gilley and said, “What are you going to do, stab me?” before collapsing to the ground, Gilley said.

“I wouldn’t have had any intentions to use (the knife) or else I would’ve used it the first time we were fighting,” Gilley says in the recording.

Gilley then went back inside her apartment and put the bloodied Gerber folding knife on the kitchen counter, where it was later found by a deputy.

During cross-examination, Sauzer criticized Kibodeaux for not collecting DNA samples of all the parties involved in the incident, but the detective said he didn’t need to because Gilley had already admitted to the stabbing.

The trial is expected to wrap up Thursday in District Judge George Larke Jr.’s courtroom. If convicted, Gilley faces a mandatory life sentence with no probation or parole.

--Staff Writer Dan Copp can be reached at 448-7639 or at dan.copp@houmatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanVCopp.

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